Firing multishot guns.



No. 694,674. w Patented Mar. 4, |902,

Y R. w. SCUTT. Y

. Hmm; muLTlSHoT Guus.

(A'pplictio med Aug. e, V1899 wfw riencefhas UNITEE i' ROBERT Wl soQ'rT',-oF PHI-montrera; vPenneviminiNIlahssieision or vone ,r ifoLouisfN. DJj-WILi-rrltlrs-"o *AISH QURNE, PENNSYLVANIA,

which the following is a specification.

4The.olliject ofprnyinvention iste providefor thefiringjwith one aim" and at one friis'chargel from thejsingle' boreof a gun of agseries of proj'ec lcs insuchmanner thata true ight off,eacli'fgprojectle -Will'nber maintained and.; close shooting' thereby insured. lhis'olojjectv Il` attaingin themanner hereinafter set fort-11'," reference being had to the accompanying portionof a gun having inserted therein a.

another method of carrying out'm'y'inVen-- tion..` Fig.-y 4 is an enlarged transverse section on the line a1, Fig. 3. Figs. 5, 6, and

7 'are -like transverse sections illustrating' moditicationsof the idea embodiedin Figs.

projectile constructed for use in carrying out my lnvention, and Fig. v9V is a View Of Stillen-V other form of projectilefor t-hepirpose'.

Heretofore in order to reltectgthe'simultane-4 ous `firing of "a, multiplicity of projectiles at ballelylias been used containing as many bore l s there are projectiles to be fired, each bore 'receiving a separate projectile.' lExpedeinonstrated, however, that it is mechanicallyfimpossible to form a number of rifle-bores of required length and maintain even approximate parallelism of the same,

one discharge'vfro'rh the ritled bore of -a gun a and the consequence has been*thatw'vhileone'y ot'theprojectiles might go tre as aimed the others lwould be deflected in the same measure that the other bores deviated fromf true alineme'nt'wvith the one whichwas' iny alinement with the sights of 'the'gum This is exemplified in do'uble-barreled rilie's,'which When used with a sight common to both barrels canseldom be made toshoot true, even ap- Fig. 2.isa vieri7 'of va srnall- 'ing maintained, Whilevat the same l v proximate [truth only l'being attained after j BeitknownthatLRoBEarWcorT,aciti; zen ofythe United States, v` residi1,1'gfin PhiIa'del-'- rhiarenris'yl'iaia, have invented seriali@ `Imp.fovements in Firing Multisht Guns', 'of'` ftedioulsjand careful adjustr'nent.`

` j:series-of bullets in Yrapid succession, so as to `amount-,practieally tosimultaneous projec- -tin ,r b'11tir`1,this case also the bullets Will not .strike a target close together, "although issuingffroin a'bor'e common .to them all,.it`er the 6o .simple reason` that the recoil caused by each ho'ttends to'deflect the bullet tired by thesuc- ?cfeeding shot. It anattemptfis made to iire a series of projectiles'from the single bore of a gunat one discharge' byjdisposing the se- 65 'friesof :projectiles onel in advance ot another in the bore of the gun and the series in ad- .Vance 'of the projecting charge, accurate shooting is` i'rr1p olssible','- kbecause the contact tof the. 'projectiles one with another as they `7c leave the vvmuzzle of the gun causes Wide de` -ilection of the projectiles.,l andin the of ,Y elongated projectiles most, if not all, ot themy y will keyhole-that is to say, will. Strike the target'sidewise. `I have feuud by ex-l perimenlioivever, that ifv the projectilerl are l p i l separated one; fro.1nanotherwhen they leave f 3 and.` f Fig. 8 is 'a view of a large-caliber the muzzle 4offtheV gun 'this dificulyty over-` come andtlieprojeetiles will pr cecrl end,k

on andfwill' rem ain so l closely vgrouped Vthat 8o ti; shooting even at long range can beaccomnhshed, the truth of the a' bedanger zone is so -greatly increased, l..J a tically-and laterally, that much grea"' ec'tion is possible than with a Singh The mosteffectve method of separa projectile I find to be by interposing a small explosivelcliargebetween each projectile and i that infront of it, so that when the p ing charge isred these interposed en' Willalsojbe exploded andgas Will be genen ated,mdel*suchy pressure between the euccessivel projectiles that'itlie desired eegmraw 'tion'of the same wiil beaceomplislieh er 95 meansofob taining the v.result Within the scope 1of vIIIY.{1r-Vention may, lhoWe'vr, be adopted. For .insti-ance, air r gasundersnch pr c as to resist the impulse ,ofthe prol'jiecting charge may beintroduced between the..4 suc- I 109i cessive projectiles in preparing the cartridge and maintained until the cartridge is" fired; but as this would necessitate the use of a l c-shell of such thickness as to resist pansive force ofthe pressure thus mainthe plan of generating the pressure between successive projectiles only at the moment of firiuglis nf'ucli to be preferred'.

ber of the cartridge, and 4, 5, 6, and 7 a se# ries of projectiles disposed one in advan'ceof another in the contracted projectile-receiv-- ing portion 8 ofthe cartridge-casing., Be'- tween the point or nose of each of the pro,-

jectilcs i, 5, and G and the buttA of thev projectile 'in advance .of it is a space containing a uniss of explosive material 9`and a mass of fulminate l0, the latter being in position to be acted upon by the point of the following projectile when the charge in the powderchamber of the projectile has been exploded and the projectiles start to move forwardly through the bore of the gun as the result of such explosion. By this -meansfeach ,of the masses of explosive material-9,.isred,andf

in consequence a volume of gas underl high tension is produced between the successive projectiles which hasthe effect of maintainof penetration of each projectileis as'greatja's'4 ing the separation of the projectiles While in the gun and after they leave the muzzle. l-Ience I und, 'that each projectile maintains A substantially as true aflight as.t l 1ough sepa-` I haveifound, moreover, that rately fired. l y with a certain powder'charge and a series of `projectiles each of given Weight the extent that of a single projectile of the same weight as one of the seriesred with alike powder charge, and as a result of repeated. experi#v ments I find 'that' there are no keyholeshots, thus indicating that the eect of the rifling in causing the projectile to maintain a` true line of Hight is preserved in the case of eac-h of the series of projectiles.` It has further been-demonstrated that the traject- V ory common to the series of projectiles is i, ,.ite as dat as that of the usual single shot.

My invention requires that each of the prof" jectiles shall be fullcaliber" projectilesthat is to say, they must be of such diameter as to be acted upon by the rifling in the caseA of a ritled gnnorte fit'so snugly to the yboreof sniootlrbore gun as to prevent the'pressure beta-*een thesuccessive projectiles from being dissipated by leakage `around the projcetle or projectiles in advance.

Infiringgrape-shot or other projectiles containing small shot I can adopt the form of cartridge shown in Fig. 2, each projectile in this case consisting ofa light cup-shaped casing ll, of thin metal or other available material containing the particles of shot, a mass of explosiveQ and 'f ulrninate l0 being interposed between the front end of each casing 1l and the rear end of the casing in advance. As shown in Fig. 2, the fulminate is disposed so as to be firedy by' contact Withthe front edgeof the casingas the latter moves forward on the exvplosion of the projecting charge; but it may,

if desired, be exploded by contact with the shot contained in the casing. The casings Il are held in the portion S of the cartridge-case by means of a Wad 12, similar to that of an ordinary shotcartrid ge but any other means of retaining the same may be employed. When a cartridge of this character is fired, it is contemplated tliat'the iight cup-shaped shells ll, owing to the resistance of.- the air,

will be thrown out of' the path of the small f shot, and thus will not interfere with the direct forward iiiglit of the'latter.

Each vmass of shot, wlth its containing-case,

is to be re- `garded asa projectile in the sense in Which that term is herein used, it being Vimmaterial to certain embodiments of my invention whether the projectile is a single ora multiple body. 1

In Fig. 3 I haveshown a cartridge in which the luse of fulminate between thesuccessive projectiles is abandoned, each projectile except the leading one having acentral longi-l tudinal opening, whereby eachof theinterposed explosive masses 9 is placedincommn-v nicat'ion with the main explosive charge of Athe cartridge.

Hence When'the latteris, fired the explosive charges 9 will alsobe .fired and the desired generation of gas under extreme tension between the successive.4 projectiles will be effected. {be evident, be attained by making the projec- The same result may', it will tile very slightly less in diameterthan the .internal diameter of the cartridgecase,zso as -,t oprovide an annular passageibetween;.the

two or by Vforming a groove in the periphery ofthe projectile, as shown in Fig., 5, forinstance, or in the interior of the cartridge-case, as shown in Fig. 6, or, especially in', case .of guns of large caliber, the opening `may be formed in the'breech portion ofthe gun itself,

as shown in Fig. 7, this opening'comniunicating with eachof the masses of explosiveQand also with the mai-n explosive charge'3, 'and being, if desired, the means through which said main explosive charge as Well as the supplementary charges may be tired, or there may be a series of independent openings, one foreach explosive charge, theaim. being.' to

expl Q 1' the charges 9 simultaneously .with the explosion of the main charge 3 oras soon a thereafter as possible. If desired, a 'suitable fuse may connect the main and supplementary charges or the latter may be such as .to be exploded by pressure, in which case` the use of` a fulminate intended to be exploded by impact will be unnecessary. In the absence of any special passage or passages for effecting the explosion of the interposed charges the expansion ofthe cartridge-shell when the `gun is fired may be relied upon -to provide dendently into the gun, each of the series of Y at the butt-end a supplementary 4explosive charge 13, contained ina casing 14 of textile or other readily permeable or destructible matei rial, as shown in Fig.v 8, this supplementary` charge being adapted to be firedeither by con-F cussion, asin Fig. l, or by communication with the exploding agent through a suitable passage, and in some cases the supplementary charge may be placed in a recess in the buttend of the projectile and held thereinby a cap or cover 15 of tin-foil or other suitable material, as shown, forinstance, in Fig. 9. When fulminateis employed for the purpose of exploding the charges interposed between the projectiles, I prefer to separate the projectiles from each other toqsuch an extent that the fulminate is not normally in contact with the projectile, which explodes the same on firing, so that if the cartridge'isaccidentally dropped in handling none of the interposed charges will be exploded. I also prefer `to graduate the supplementary charges, using the `lightest charge at the forward end and the heaviest at the rear, as shown, so that the volumes of gas generated by the explosion of these interposed charges will offer a graduated resistance to the forward movement of the projectiles behind them, the resistance being least at the forward end of the cartridge and greatest at the rear end. In some cases the leading supplementary charge may be exploded first through the medium of a passage v in the gun, as in Fig.` 7, or in any other available way, the rear charges being exploded by the recoil of the projectiles in advance of the same. The mainor projecting charge need not necessarily be an explosive charge, as it may consist ofair or gas compressed, as in the case of the modern dynamite-gun.

Of course it will be understood that the `shape and character of the projectiles may be varied as desired without departing from theL spirit of my invention, so long as the projectiles are such as to be acted upon by the rifling in the case of arified gun or to fit snugly to the bore in the case of a smooth-bore gun, and thus prevent undue escape of gases around the same. y

Having thus described my invention, I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patentl. The mode herein described of tiring a se ries of full-caliber projectiles from the single bore of a gun at one discharge, said mode consisting in disposing the projectiles one before l another, discharging them by means of a projecting agent at therear of the series, and interposing between successive projectiles a barrier of elastic liuid under pressure whenv the series is being fired. Y

2. The mode herein described of iring a seriesfof full-caliber projectiles from the single` bore of 'a gun at one discharge, said mode consisting in disposing the projectiles one before another in advance of an explosive projecting agent, discharging the series of projectiles by firing said explosive agent, and interposing a ,barrier of elastic fluid under pressure between successive projectiles when the series is being fired.

3. The mode herein described of tiring a series of full-caliber projectiles from the single bore of a gun at one discharge, said mode consisting in disposing the projectiles one before another, discharging them by means of a proj ecting agent at the rear of the series, and exploding supplementary charges between the successive projectiles as they are being red.

4. The mode herein described of iiringaseries of full-caliber projectiles from the single bore of a gun at one discharge, said mode consisting in disposing the projectiles one before another in advance of a main explosive projecting agent, discharging the series of projectiles by firing said explosive agent, and exploding supplementary charges between the successive projectiles as they are being red.

5. The mode herein described of tiring a series of full-caliber projectiles from uthe single bore of a gun at one discharge, said mode consisting in disposing the projectiles one before another, discharging them by means of a projecting agent at the rear of the series, and interposing between successive projectiles, when the series is iired, a barrier of elastic fiuid under pressure, the pressure being least between the two foremost projectiles, and gradually increasing between successive projectiles in the rear thereof.

G. The mode herein described of firing a series of full-caliber projectiles from the single bore of a gun at one discharge, said mode consisting in disposing the projectiles one before another in advance of the explosive projecting agent, discharging the series of projectiles by firing said explosive projecting agent, and interposing between successive projectiles, when the series is being fired, a barrier of elastic fluid under pressure, the pressure being least between the two foremost projectiles' and gradually increasing betweenthe succes- ICO IIO

ploding between successive projectiles as theV series is being red, graduated supplementary charges, least between the two foremost projectiles and gradually increasing in explosive force between successive projectiles in the rear thereof.

In testimony whereof I have signed my naine to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

ROBERT \V. SCOTT.

\Vitnesses:

J. E. SCOTT, SUE L. ROHRMAN. 

